Collide
by qpritchie1
Summary: Riley Quinn has lived in Mystic Falls all of his life alongside Elena and Bonnie as his best friends. Now that the Salvatore brothers have moved to town, what does that mean for everybody? Stefan/OMC Matt/OMC. SLASH RxR! Rated M for a later chapters.
1. Chapter I: The First Encounter

**Hey! I felt like doing something new considering that the Vampire Diaries drought has taken over me and I've had to resort to fanfiction for some help and realized that I wanted a new character input into the story that not really any of the stories on FFN really had. So...Stefan/OMC/Matt, anyone? I know...I have a lot of pent up ideas in my head about gay fantasies going on popular shows/movies/books...but that's just how I am lol.**

**Now, this story is obviously AU. Stefan isn't gay, much to my disappointment, but we'll just have to see where this goes, won't we? And I'm truly excited for this! I love every single one of the characters in the show, so there'll be plenty to go around.**

_**ALSO!**_** I've read all the books(except for Shadow Souls), so there might be some influence from there, too...I'm not sure, but mostly, it'll be my own stuff and I won't be taking much from the show's storyline except for the plot...kind of...**

**Pairings: Stefan/OMC/Matt, Elena/OMC(not the same guy), Tyler/Jeremy, Bonnie/Damon**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Vampire Diaries because if I did, you know that there would be some Stefan/Matt and Jeremy/Tyler action going on.**

**Ready? Good! Lol I chaned his name, like, 5 times so hope the name sticks.**

_**V A M P I R E D I A R I E S**_

I woke up with a start to the feeling of movement in my bed. Almost forgetting why there was movement in my bed, I snapped my head to where it was coming from. To my relief, it was just my two best friends; Elena Gilbert and Bonnie Bennett. The memories of our little sleepover came crashing back to me as Bonnie's face formed a look of apology for waking me up as she continued her way off of the bed and into my private bathroom. I looked over at Elena and she was absolutely oblivious to Bonnie's movement. I chuckled lightly before turning over to face my bedroom door, the tiniest slit of dim light beneath it.

Elena and Bonnie have been my best friends for as long as I can remember. We grew up in this small town called Mystic Falls in Virginia. Our parents were all best friends with each other, so it was only a matter of time before we were the same way.

The death of Elena's parents, Grayson and Miranda, hit all of us very hard, especially her and her little brother, Jeremy. Now, they both live with their aunt Jenna in the same house with all of the same memories which held new and unfamiliar pain for them. Jeremy was only a year younger than us, but seemed to run with a different crowd nowadays. After their death, there were rumors of him buying drugs and drinking himself to the point where he would blackout completely. Elena chose to ignore the rumors, but still kept an eye out for him; we all did.

To both Bonnie and I, he was the little brother we never had. Both of us were the only kids our families had, so we never really experienced that bond between siblings, but we might as well have.

The three of us were amazingly close with each other. In fact, they were the first people that I came out to. If anything, it made us all closer. No longer was there a fear to undress in front of each other or sleep in the same bed, as they put it, which brings us to tonight.

Ever since the fatal car accident, both Elena and Bonnie have slept at my house every weekend since. It was also very convenient seeing as how I lived directly across the street from Elena's house. We used to sneak into each other's rooms all the time without anybody knowing. It became increasingly easier to climb up each other's tree that sat directly in front of our windows with branches welcoming us into each other's rooms. One of us usually had Bonnie over, so it was up for the other to meet up there.

It was now 6:21 AM on a warm Monday morning. The sun was just starting to seep through my black curtains, causing them to glow from the rays, but not yet enveloping the room in daylight. I heard the door to the bathroom open and saw Bonnie sluggishly make her way back to the bed and rightfully taking her place in between Elena and I. The warmth of a body curled up next to me only made me drowsy and caused me to fall back asleep.

_**V A M P I R E D I A R I E S**_

My alarm sounded at exactly 7:05, causing the three of us all to groan in response. I slapped at the metal invention sitting on the top of my nightstand, hoping that it would turn off. After a few attempts, the annoying beeping subsided. Then, I realized why the alarm had sounded; it was the first day of Junior year at Mystic Falls High School. I groaned internally and made my way to my closet where we stored the outfits we helped each other pick out the day before in. I grabbed my outfit and headed into my bathroom to get ready.

I put my clothes on, a blue Famous shirt that made my gray eyes that much more brighter, dark wash jeans, and black and white Converse, and styled my short blonde hair the way I liked it; messy yet stylish, before making my way back out into my bedroom.

As I walked back in, both Elena and Bonnie were dressed and both putting on their shoes. Elena's deep brown hair swayed over her shoulder and down towards the floor as she leaned over to strap on her boots while a couple of Bonnie's black and brown curly locks hung loosely around her tan face.

"Why can't school start at noon?" I complained as I flopped down onto my bed and closing my eyes.

"That sounds _amazing, _Riley!" Bonnie sighed from the bathroom as both she and Elena applied their makeup. Her and Elena were the only two that called me that. My real name is Riley Quinn. My parents were obsessed with unisex names, they even named our dog Sasha, even if it was a boy. So, anyway, my parents picked their favorite unisex name for me and, well, here I am.

"Unfortunately, the government doesn't see it that way." Elena stated blankly, focusing on applying a touch of eyeliner around her amber brown eyes. At that point, I heard my phone buzzing on my nightstand. I picked it up and read the name.

"Matt's calling..." I announced causing the two girls in my bathroom to stare at me through the mirror, and with perfectly good reason. I've liked Matt for as far back as middle school. So much so, that one of my friends decided not to date him because of it. I mean, Matt really seemed to like Elena, too, and as much as I protested that she should base her decision to date him because of my unrequited feelings, she chose to reject him, anyway. Since then, I've befriended Matt. He's become one of my closest friends, right behind Bonnie and Elena who tied for first. He was one of my only real guy friends, the other one I'm not as close with, but that doesn't mean I tell him everything.

I've only come out to a select amount of people; Elena and Bonnie, of course. Then there was my parents, the Gilberts and Bennetts, and Jeremy. The rest of the populace could just guess about my sexuality. It's not like I hid it or anything, but if I don't truly know them, I don't think they need to know.

Matt was the exception. I didn't tell him I was gay because it could have ruined our friendship. Elena and Bonnie both fought back with shit like, 'your real friends would not care,' and 'it is not a real friendship until he knows that about you,' but I ignored that because I was scared of his reaction.

"Hey, dude. What's up?" I greeted as I turned away from the two and faced my bedroom window.

"Hey, Riles." Matt was the only person to call me that, and hearing him greet me with it just makes my heart beat faster and the butterflies in my stomach to flutter around more frantically. "Vicky has her own ride to school and Tyler's gonna skip 1st, so I was wondering if you guys wanted a ride today." Vicky was his litte sister that was Jeremy's age and Tyler was a mutual friend between Matt and I. Tyler was always the cocky, arrogant typical jock. I mean, he was fine before he made it on the football team back in our first year of high school. But no matter how self-absorbed he got, he was still another one of my close friends...fourth in line to be exact. Luckily, Matt stayed his modest, kind self, though. When I wasn't around Elena and Bonnie, I was with one of them. Although, I tried to be around Matt most of those times.

"Sounds great, Matt." I answered gleefully as I looked back at the all-too-knowing girls that discontinued the process of applying makeup to stare back at me as I had my phone conversation. They generated knowing looks between each other, but I averted my gaze from them to the tip of my shoes.

"Great. Twenty minutes?" he asked, pointedly more to the girls because he knew I didn't take long to get ready. I told him that was good and hung up. Bonnie and Elena were looking at me, wanting to know what Matt's call was about.

"Looks like we're getting a ride from Matt." I announced, to which they only shrugged and went back to stare at themselves in the mirror. I sighed heavily as the thought of hanging with Matt before school filled my mind with all kinds of scenarios.

_**V A M P I R E D I A R I E S**_

"So, I'm thinking that we should follow in Tyler's footsteps and skip 1st period." I said as the nervousness started to overwhelm me. It was like that almost every year. I don't know why; same students, same campus, just different classes. But why was I getting this feeling that everything I knew to be normal would change today? Was it because we were in the last half of our high school lives, or was it something completely different?

"Not likely, Riley. There has to be at least one person in this car that wants to go...right?" Elena said nervously. Since the car accident she was in with her parents, she had a fear of being in a car. It was almost unnoticeable, but only if you've never met her before.

Elena's question remained unanswered. "Well, then why are we all still going again?" she asked, needing to be reassured that there had to be some reason of going today.

"Because if we don't, the-OH SHIT!" Matt exclaimed as he slammed on the brakes to stop us from hitting an incredibly large crow. As the car came to a complete stop, all you could hear was the panicked breaths of everybody in the car, even Matt. "You okay?" Matt asked me, his silvery-blue eyes stared back at me as he put a hand through his strands of short blonde and brown hair. I nodded in response, unable to really speak, my breath still trying to catch up to my emotional state. "What about you guys?" he asked with concern in his voice, directed mostly toward Elena. There was an undertone of understanding why he directed it toward her, even if it was unspoken. Instead of showing my feelings of jealousy, I averted my gaze from the two and looked out the window. And there it was; the crow. It looked down at Elena. No, not looked down; stared. Its feathers were unlike what I've seen on crows before. Sure, they were black, but they were so slick and shiny that it started reflecting colors at the tips. And it just sat on top of the lamppost; unmoving. Matt started to drive again, and the bird's eyes followed Elena as we drove off in the direction of our school.

"Okay...freaky crow-thing we almost hit was glaring at you." I said as I turned around to look Elena in the eyes. Bonnie and Elena looked back and Matt scanned his rear view mirror, but it was already gone. We just shrugged it off as a weird coincidence as we edged closer to the school grounds.

The school was already bustling with the life of its students. Some were hanging in the parking lot where Matt had parked his car, others were in the halls gossiping about whatever had happened over the summer.

"Hey ladies and gents." Tyler greeted as he caught up to us. His short dark hair laid motionless atop his head as he jogged over. His chocolate brown eyes made eye contact with everybody as he continued. "I hear we have a new student here; Stephanie something." Tyler didn't look too pleased at that. Maybe he had already her and got rejected. Boy, that'd be quite a blow to Tyler's ego...he'd probably just pretend like nothing happened but secretly think she was a lesbian.

"Sounds interesting. What grade?" Bonnie asked out of curiousity as she readjusted the bag on her shoulder.

"No idea. Name's all I got." Tyler shook his head lightly before grabbing Matt's shoulder. "Coach wants us on the field to meet up with the potentials." Crap. That meant less time walking side-by-side with the occasional arm brush. I sighed heavily to myself before the rest of us said bye to the two guys as they walked in the other direction.

"Wait...wasn't he supposed to be skipping 1st period?" I asked myself under my breath as I realized that Matt had told me that. I'll have to ask Tyler about that later.

"Elena!" A girl named Caroline called out from across the hallway. Her blonde hair fell in waves as she rushed over in her stiletto heels as they clomped on the linoleum. I never really liked Caroline; she always seemed a bit fake to me. Okay, maybe more than just a bit. She hugged Elena rather suddenly and, while keeping a hold of her shoulders, asked "How are you?" with an artificial look of concern on her face. Bonnie and I exchanged the same looks between each other that kind of translated to, "this bitch!" but we kept the translation to ourselves rather than sharing it with the two girls that stood between us.

"I'm doing better. Thank you." To others, her smile was sincere, but Bonnie and I both knew just how fake it was. We had helped her work on it so that she can go on with the day without too much sympathy for her, or even reminder of what had happened over the summer. Hell, if Caroline had been a real friend, she would have contacted Elena in some way, but she didn't.

"That's good. We should all catch up later." Caroline said pointedly to the three of us. Her blue eyes had a vague look of remorse, but I didn't give it too much thought before I replied for the three of us.

"Yeah, definitely." I muttered just loud enough. Hell, even to me it sounded fake. I think my best friends caught it because once Caroline nodded and walked away, they couldn't stop smiling.

"Damn, Riley. You're cold." Elena said as she tried to hide her smile by brushing her hand over her mouth and holding it there for a second or two. Bonnie continued smiling softly at the thought, They knew that I wasn't aggressive, or even mean, but when it came to friends, I was a fucking beast.

"Isn't that how we roll?" I asked seriously, causing them both to chuckle, bringing a smile to my own face. "Oh crap, i-its not?" I started, teasing them slightly as I stopped both girls for emphasis. "Caroline! I'm sorry! Text me and we can all get fro-yo la-!" I called out, and luckily Caroline was nowhere in sight. Elena punched my arm to stop me as she tried not to laugh at my over-dramatic outburst. Bonnie, however, was busting out laughing at this point. I gave them both a quick smile as they recognized the humor.

As we passed the main office, Bonnie noticed something about it. "Whoa, who is _that_?" Bonnie asked, putting her hand in front of us to stop us from continuing past it.

"Two new kids this year. Should be fun..." I said sarcastically. The entire school made it such a big deal when a new kid transferred into our school. I was actually very disinterested in the entire thing. The last thing a new student needed was all of the attention and effort people put into finding out who they are without even talking directly to them.

"Don't know. I can only see his back." I heard Elena say before I turned around. The guy was built like an athlete. What sport; I didn't know. He was wearing a black leather jacket and form-fitting jeans. From the top of his jacket, I could see the hood of his sweatshirt draped over it. His hair was a chestnut brown color with the tiniest hint of copper to it.

"It's a nice back." I snorted at her response as I looked lower to check him out where Bonnie had 'oh-so-subtly' pointed out. It was true, though. The jeans hugged him in all the right places, much to the pleasure to the three of us as we all tilted our heads to the sides, almost comically, to get a better angle.

I don't know about them but I bit my lip in satisfaction.

"Alright, ladies. Let's leave before our bodies respond to our sexual gaze at a stranger." I said as I tried turning them around.

"Too late." Bonnie said bluntly. I chuckled loudly before continuing to push them off in the other direction.

As we walked down the hall, Elena seemed a bit off-put by something; as if she were angry or frustrated with something. Right when I was about to ask her, Bonnie beat me to the punch.

"Elena, what's up? You seem like you're about ready to shank somebody with your three-inch heel." she asked, looking over at her friend as she hugged her books. She put on a small smile as she asked to keep it light and not intrusive.

"I just might; I'll meet up with you guys later, okay?" Elena said as she rushed off and into an intersecting hallway. Bonnie and I shared glances of equal confusion before either of us spoke up.

"What do you think was up with that?" I asked softly as we continued our way to randomly roam the hallways. "Think we should be concerned?" My voice grew even softer as I started to worry what made her have to rush off like that.

"I don't know; she looked more like she was about to bite somebody's head off after clawing their eyes out with a chipped spork rather than over-emotional about...you know..." Bonnie explained. She was right, Elena did seem like that, but that didn't mean that it took my feeling of uneasiness away.

After a few more minutes of walking sluggishly around the school and talking about our new schedule for school before the bell rang and said our goodbyes before walking off to our own separate classes. I had a class with her her fourth period right before lunch, but I won't see her until then.

_**V A M P I R E D I A R I E S**_

1st period? Chemistry. I headed to the lab across the campus, the bell ringing almost immediately after I entered the classroom. Everybody was crowded up against the walls of the room with their books being held in their hands and their bags slung over their shoulders.

"Riley!" a deep voice called from the other side of the room. I looked over and saw Tyler who nodded at me with a small grin. I walked over, happy to find somebody I knew in this class.

"Hey, Lockwood. I heard that you were going to skip first." He didn't answer; his eyes were too glued on an asian girl bending over to pick up a fallen piece of paper. I chuckled lightly before he said anything.

"Damn, check _her_ out, Riley." Much like I did earlier, he tilted his head to get a better view and softly chewed on his lip seductively.

"Aren't you dating that Vickie girl?" His face dropped suddenly, but never lost the devilish grin on his face.

"It's a 'look but don't touch' kind of thing, so I'm not doing anything wrong." he grinned widely as he adjusted his pearl-white binder that matched the shade of his toothy grin from one hand to the other.

"Alright, class." the teacher started as he clapped his hands together in an eager manner. "As your schedules may say, I am Mr. Tobens, and this is Chemistry. If you are in the wrong room, please leave now." he instructed as he gestured toward the open classroom, his pupils peeking over his glasses. His dull grey eyes showed many years of experience in these types of things, and his gray and balding hair only backed up that piece of information, as did his silver-white stubbley beard. Nobody moved so he continued greeting his set of new students.

After the introduction, he said that we each had assigned lab partners. Everybody groaned about it, all except me. Not like I really knew anybody besides Tyler in here, so maybe meeting some new people will prove to be one of the more positive experiences of Junior year.

Mr. Tobens called out the student's names. They walked over to their proper tables in pairs, introducing themselves to each other before sitting down onto the sleek charcoal and chrome stools and dragged them into place to sit comfortably at their counters. "Riley Quinn," he finally called out. I stood in place as he continued on to inform me of my lab partner for the rest of the year. "Brittany Buenaventura." The raven-haired girl that Tyler was ogling earlier made her way to the table as she looked around curiously as to who would step up and claim their name.

"What do you know? You get the hottie." Tyler chuckled lightly as he nudged me from behind. "Make it worth her while, huh?" he said devilishly in more of a hushed tone. I laughed nervously at him as I moved forward to claim my spot at the table only to have my ass patted by him, in an obvious platonic and masculine way. Well, as masculine as you can get from smacking another guy's ass.

"I'm Riley." I extended my hand to hers, a friendly smile on my face.

She smiled back with a friendly gaze. Her almond-shaped eyes were a deep brown color with touches of copper mixed into it. "Hi, nice to meet you. I'm Brittany." We both sat down; she took the right side of the table and I took the left.

Tyler was called up to sit in front of me with some blonde guy that was on the school's baseball team. Keith Hordes, I believe. He was pretty good-looking, but obviously not the guy that I liked. Plus, he was pretty much the equivalent to the jock stereotype by not really offering much to an intelligent conversation, if you get what I mean. Intelligence is somewhat important to me when it comes to a potential boyfriend. I want to be able to talk about more than just babes, booze, and ball. Both Matt and Tyler met that standard, but still. But their just friends, so it must also be a quality that I look for in friends.

The class was spent getting to know our fellow lab partners. Turns out Brittany loved fashion and took a class at the local junior college. She looked it, too. She had an asymmetrical haircut that stopped just above her shoulders with silver earrings dangling from underneath it. She was wearing a red coat with a grey v-neck underneath. As she sat, her legs extended to see that they were completely covered in black tights and black velvet boots with a four-inch heel that blended in perfectly with the tights to look like some sort of one-piece bottom. Apparently, Brittany also moved from a small town in California, which made sense because she was absolutely gorgeous. If I were straight, I would be crushing hard. She also has a twin sister, Courtney, but Brittany hated her immensely. Courtney was described as bitchy, bossy, and judgemental. In other words, somebody I wanted to avoid. I'll be on the lookout for a Brittany look-a-like with hair down to just below her boobs to get attention from horny guys, as said by Brittany.

The bell rang to let the class out from their respective rooms. I said goodbye to Brittany and ended up walking out with Tyler. Turns out our classes are right across from each other; he has shop and I have art.

I saw an empty seat next to Jeremy and started to walk over to him, a small smile on my face, but as I did, a red-haired girl with a body the size of an anorexic model place her bag on top of the table and took the seat next to him. It was Vicky. Why is Jeremy talking with Tyler's girlfriend? How did they even know each other? I looked around for another seat but the bell rang. The art teacher, Ms. Weinwright, told us immediately that she wanted us to call her, Jennifer. Well, there goes any respect that these kids might have for her. But after that, she called everybody up to get their own sketch book. I stood in line and found the guy in front of me to be oddly familiar. He had on an olive-colored shirt that outlined all of his muscles, or at least what I could see from behind him. He also wore dark wash jeans that seemed like they were made for him and only him. His hair was a a rich chocolate brown with a tinge of dark caramel. We got to the front, but he turned around too fast for me to see his face. I got my sketchbook and smiled at 'Jennifer.'

"Hi, umm, I couldn't really find an open seat. Did you happen to spot one?" She pointed me over to where the guy that was in front of me was sitting down and writing his name into the sketchbook. His face didn't seem familiar, but he was very cute. He had a strong jawline and cheek definition that would make anybody attracted to guys just melt. In fact, my knees got a bit unsteady as I walked over to claim the seat next to him. I pulled out the chair from under the table and sat down. He looked up and my heart skipped a beat as he did. His eyes were a brilliant green but faded as it sunk into the iris. "Hi, Jennifer said this was the only seat left, so hope you don't mind me taking it." I joked as I put my binder onto the edge of the table and plopped my black sketchbook down into the center.

"Not at all." His voice sent shivers down my spine, but good ones. Great ones, in fact. It was a low rumbling, yet it still held a light tone to it, almost old-fashioned. He gave me a friendly and kind smile that made me grin widely practically instantaneously. I looked over at my sketchbook, it's dark leather casing glaring the fluorescent lighting from above us, and opened it only to realize that I didn't have a pen or marker to write my name in it. I looked for the bin of Sharpie's that the teacher had pointed out to the rest of the class and found it to be completely empty. Then, I remembered that the guy next to me had one.

"Hey, could I, maybe, borrow your pen...please?" My nerves were getting the best of me as I made eye contact. I could feel a lump in my throat as I breathed ou.

"Of course." he said as he pulled it back out of his jacket. His _leather _jacket. Oh, God. He's the guy from the office; the one that we were drooling over. I knew he looked familiar! Seeing him out of his jacket must have confused me. He handed over the pen and our fingers lightly brushed over each other as I grasped it, sending static electricity riding along all of the nerves in my body.His fingers were completely ice cold, but I didn't say anything about it. I gave my thanks and looked down, a bit embarrassed by feeling what I did.

"My name is Stefan, by the way." Stefan? Well, Tyler definitely wasn't listening when he heard 'Stephanie.' But Stefan suited him well. I'm not really sure why or how I knew that, but I somehow did. "Stefan Salvatore." Now, why did that name bring up all sorts of emotions? Maybe it was just nervousness because I could feel my breath hitch and my heart race.

"Hi, I'm Riley Quinn." I introduced, almost blushing at how his smile was directed at me. I knew it was stupid, but it had its affect. Nonetheless, I returned his friendly gesture as I scribbled down my name as 'Stefan' but quickly crossed it out and wrote my own name.

"Nice to meet you, Riley."

_**V A M P I R E D I A R I E S**_

**So, how was it? I'm hoping to write more but it won't be quick considering school starts on Monday...yeah I know...stupid year-round schools. But I'll definitely work on it, especially with the support of my friend, Josie. She just joined the site, and she's astounded by how many stories there are, and of those stories, how many m/m pairings lol. To Josie, I'm glad that I made you lose your Slash Virginity. :D**


	2. Chapter II: Rescheduled

**Okay, first thing's first. When I put Stefan/OMC/Matt as the main pairing, that does not mean Stefan/Matt; it means Stefan and Matt like the same person AKA not each other. I've had two people mention how they were looking forward to the Stefan/Matt part to my story, but there won't be any. Don't get me wrong, I love Smatt and am disappointed by the lack of stories of them there really are, but that's not what this story is about, sadly enough.**

**Next off, I apologize for not updating sooner, its just been really hard to balance school, friends, family, and some relaxation in between. I've finally had some time to do something with this, and most likely the rest of my live stories by the end of my three-day weekend; I just decided to update this one first since you guys have given me some awesome reviews to continue, so here you are.**

**And last but not least, I had to update for my friend Josie who encouraged me to post this story. We are both absolutely in love with Vampire Diaries, and although we're on opposite sides of the Elena spectrum (I'm Team Stefan while she's Team Damon) we set that aside by agreeing that all the guys on this show are hot as hell and just end up talking about how epic the episodes have been and holy hell, it starts again soon! Can't wait!**

**Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I've enjoyed watching it play out in my head and typing it up.**

_**V A M P I R E D I A R I E S**_

"Nice to meet you, Riley." Stefan said, his voice causing my heart to pulsate against the muscles in my chest. It kept repeating in my head as I walked out of art class, having the same affect it did forty-five minutes ago. The rest of that class was spent drawing shapes into our sketchbooks, but my mind was on other things, as you can imagine. Even as I walked out of class without another word, I could still feel it.

"Hey, Riley!" a voice called from behind me, but it wasn't the deep, kind voice of Stefan. Nope, the voice belonged to somebody I've known for a really long time. I turned around and saw Jeremy smiling over at me, walking in my direction.

"Hey, Jeremy. What's going on, man?" I greeted as he caught up to me. Before I turned around, I saw a quick glimpse of Stefan looking over with his eyes fixed on mine. But when I took a double take, he had already left. Slightly disappointed, I turned back to Jeremy.

"Umm...not much, I guess. Hey, I didn't know you had art class with me..." he pointed to the leather sketchbook I was holding. I just chuckled lightly to myself, trying hard not to respond with _yeah, I noticed_, but I decided against it.

"Oh, I am? I didn't even notice." I lied, not wanting to embarrass myself by informing him that he didn't even notice me there. "Where do you sit?" I continued, playing dumb as I usually did to avoid an awkward conversation.

"Toward the very back of the room with V...this one girl." he stumbled, obviously trying to hide his mistake. Why wouldn't he just say her name? What was so bad about doing that? "You?" he said, trying quickly to move on from his blunder.

"I sit along the wall with the door with a guy that just moved here. Stefan...or...some shit like that..." Rule number one about trying to hide how much you really care; cuss. Throw in a swear word, and you're all good in guy world. If I said that to Elena or Bonnie, they'd see right through it. Or maybe they're just that perceptive. Either way, it seemed to work in this case because Jeremy just nodded.

"Oh, cool. Well, I gotta go. I have geometry now." he informed me before he waved with barely any effort. "See you later, Riley." He seemed a bit jumpy as he rushed off, but then I realized why; Tyler was making his way toward us.

"Hey, dude. What's with Grumbling Gilbert hanging around you?" Tyler asked curiously as his eyes followed the younger boy.

"Tyler, lay off; we were just saying 'hi.'" I explained to him, hopefully getting Jeremy out of whatever Tyler was planning in his head. Some sort of embarrassing torture, I'm sure. I don't know what they had between each other but ever since summer began, they've practically been at each others' throats. "Plus, he hasn't done anything to you, so stop being a whiny little bitch about it." I gave him a playful smirk as he just gave me a disbelieving look as his jaw hung by its hinges, his mouth open to whatever might fly in there.

"Wha-? _He's_ the whi-" His disbelief showed in the way he talked, his arms gesturing to what he couldn't say in words. I just chuckled lightly before continuing our way down the hallway to our next class.

"Hey," a voice greeted from behind us. We both turned around to see Matt's smiling face, causing me to grin even wider. Why did he have to be so cute? It's impossible to ignore that. It'd be way easier to get over him being straight if he were ugly, but of course not. He has to look like he was the secret love child of Jessica Alba and Brad Pitt.

"Hey, dude." I greeted, trying to keep my breath from noticeably hitching. Luckily, Tyler spoke before any hitching took place.

"Hey. Any hot ass in any of your classes yet?" he asked Matt, a smug side grin on his face.

"Oh, good...we found you guys just in time..." Elena said from behind us, playfully disgusted by what Tyler had said alongside a giggling Bonnie.

"Yeah, your timing is impeccable, Elena." I said semi-sarcastically. Semi because I was relieved that I didn't have to talk about that. I mouthed a 'thank you' to Elena and she just grinned in response. "So, where does everybody go right now?" I asked curiously, only really remembering my own schedule.

"I have Calculus." Bonnie spoke up first.

"French" Elena piped in, wedging her head in between me and Tyler's shoulders. Her head resting on my right shoulder as we all stood in a circle in the middle of the hallway.

"Fitness." Tyler said. Of course he had fitness, although I would never understand that decision. Fitness was an elective but only the jocks and girls that wanted to get with jocks signed up for that class. Why didn't I sign up? Trust me, me playing sports— ain't pretty. I've been told that it's reminded people of a blind sniper; I may know the technique, but as much as I know the routine way on how to do it, my accuracy would lead me to harm innocent people. Hell, I even caused a kid to get a concussion. Well, not really. But I did end up accidentally hitting him really hard in the back of the head with a tennis racket. Matt says it didn't hurt too bad after the bump went away, but I think he was just trying to cover it up considering the racket snapped in half.

"English" Matt said, breaking me away from my thoughts and memories. Then, I realized something that internally perked up, but I tried not to show it too much.

"Same here." I mentioned, trying to sound as disinterested as possible. Bonnie gave me a knowing look, and I ended up blushing slightly. I'm hoping nobody noticed— specifically Matt. Luckily, if anybody did notice, they didn't show any signs that they did.

"Alright, let's all head our separate ways, then." Bonnie suggested before she said, "See you fourth period, Riley." She smiled at me before walking away to her next class, no doubt. Elena and Tyler followed suit and before I knew it, it was just Matt and I standing there.

"Well, looks like it's just the two of us, Riles." Matt said, patting my shoulder before leading the way down to our shared class.

_**V A M PI R E D I A R I E S**_

As soon as we entered, we found a table with four seats next to each other in a group. We decided to take two of them so that we wouldn't be split up with people that we never met before. The table had two other people already sitting there; one was a guy with light brown hair and bright green eyes, His smile was goofy, yet good-natured. He was pretty decent looking, too. Next to him sat a hispanic girl with her hair down to her shoulders. I instantly recognized her as one of the varsity cheerleaders we had at the school.

The bell rang and it took a few minutes for the teacher to pull herself away from her computer desk and begin the class. "Alright, everybody. My name is Mrs. Hale and this is English 11." She was a frail woman, but couldn't be more than in her late twenties. Her hair was a natural orange color and made it just above her shoulders. She also looked very nervous about something. "This is my first year teaching, so please...be gentle." Ah, there it was. Some people chuckled, but I just smiled sweetly at her as she made random eye contact with me. "Now, today-" she was interrupted as somebody walked in the room.

The head that popped through the doorway was Brittany from my first period class. She apologized swiftly before spotting the empty seat next to me and grabbing it. We smiled nicely at each other before turning our attention back to the teacher. "Ok, so Today-" Then, the door clicked again, signaling some one else was walking in.

I looked over and saw Stefan look apologetic and closing the door ever so slightly so not to make too much noise. I looked around the classroom and noticed that there weren't any other seats other than the one across from me. I smiled to myself but acted as if I hadn't noticed him walk in. The teacher took his tardy note, placed it onto her desk, and dismissed him to find a seat. Of course, the only seat there was was the one at our table, so he quietly sat down and made a ninety-degree turn to face Mrs. Hale.

"Like I was saying, today-" she looked over to the door as if expecting somebody else to walk in, but they hadn't, so she turned to face us again. "Today, we're just going to be getting to know our groups. Now, these people will be your groups for the rest of the year." That made me smile, knowing that that wouldn't be a problem what so ever.

"Alright, I'm going to get us started; Hi, I'm Mrs. Hale. I'm married to a man named Gordon and we have a kid-ten. A kitten..." She smiled softly at us, expecting us to laugh, but we stayed silent. In fact, I'm pretty sure you could hear the class down clearly versus anything coming from in here. "No? Oh—umm let's see... my favorite color is powder blue, my favorite food are actually apples. Umm...ok...you guys go, now." Mrs. Hale said before hesitantly walking back to her desk and applying some hand sanitizer.

There was an uncomfortable shift between the group. Nobody really wanted to start, so we sat there in silence for a few moments before the goofy-grinning guy spoke up.

"Alright, guess I'll start. I'm Nick." he said as he looked around at the people sitting at the table.

"Hi, I'm Riley." I waved, slowly cutting the tension of the table and quickly glancing over at Stefan, whose eyes were on me. That made me blush a little more than I thought it would. I was hoping he didn't notice it as the Latina girl spoke up.

"I'm Lailene." she mentioned as she flipped her hair right on cue at the end of her sentence.

"Brittany." she smiled sweetly as she tucked her hands under the table. She now had a white knit cap on that tucked most of her hair underneath, her earrings now more noticeable than before as they dangled in small shimmering streams.

"Matt." Matt continued as we all sounded off our names, a small grin on his face that just made me want to melt.

"Stefan." The guy across from me said, ending the introductions as his voice lingered in the air. He had laid his hands flat onto the table somewhere along the process of it all. He patted them onto the wooden surface as the silence from before had come back to haunt us. I sighed quietly. Matt, the only person to acknowledge it as he looked over. We shared a look that spoke more than words, but it roughly translated to, 'This is torture,' or even 'Awkward...'

After a few minutes, the entire class was having the same awkward silence that our table endured. At this point, Mrs. Hale came back to the front of the class to set the class on our next assignment.

"Alright, now that we're all done meeting the table at which you will be sitting at for the rest of the year, we will be reading a section of poetry." Some people groaned and complained, but I just sat there. I didn't hate poetry, nor did I love it. Frankly, I couldn't care less what we did, as long as it would get us out of this overwhelming quiet. Mrs. Hale passed out a piece of paper with the poem on it to everybody and then sending her teacher's assistant to get more copies for her next class. "Any volunteers?" Stefan raised his hand, much to my surprise. He didn't seem like he would be one to volunteer for the public speaking spotlight, but I guess it was way too early to assume anything about him.

As he read it, his voice was so elegant and graceful. He seemed all-too-familiar with the poem. My guess was that he either really loved poetry, or that he was familiar with the poem, most likely from his last school. He kind of seemed like the poetic type, I suppose. After a bit, I realized the poem was of unrequited love, and my mind instantly flashed an image of Matt's smiling face.

The rest of the day passed in a similar fashion; introductions to teachers I've never met before. Actually, no; it wasn't like any other day. I had more classes with Stefan, and one more with Matt. History class had Matt, Bonnie, Elena, Tyler, Caroline, and Stefan. It was one of the best classes since everybody I usually am with was there, plus a potential new friend, much to my dismay at that title. In fact, he was pretty great at history. He showed the teacher up at what he was teaching, which apparently was completely false. I did the honors of looking up who had the true fact on my phone. Stefan, of course, was right. The teacher seemed a bit peeved by that, but it only brought a smirk to my face as I gazed at the back of Stefan's head for the rest of his period.

_**V A M PI R E D I A R I E S**_

"Mom, I'm home!" I called out to my mother as I placed my binder on the dinner table. That's when I noticed the note on the table; "Went out with Jenna, be back later." Jenna, of course, being Elena's aunt. After Miranda died, Jenna sort of filled the void for a best friend for my mom. Guess that means Elena was home. As soon as I opened the door, I saw a car parked outside her house. Seems Jeremy got a ride home from that Vicky girl Tyler was dating. Vicky was Matt's sister, but I never really got to know her. She was always out whenever I visited Matt, so for all I knew, they were complete strangers. I was about to call out to him, but I saw Vicky get out of the car and head over to Jeremy, pulling him into a deep kiss. What the fuck? Tyler doesn't deserve that slut! At least he never cheated on her. And what was Jeremy doing? He knows that Vicky has a boyfriend. Not cool, Jer. Out of total reflex, my mind traveled over to Matt; does Matt know his sister sleeps around?

Vicky got her trashy self back into her car and drove off as Jeremy made his way into his house. That was when I made the decision that if Elena weren't there, I would confront Jeremy about it. Before I could lock up, my phone buzzed in my pocket. It was Elena.

_Meet me outside the cemetery. I'll be out in a few._

_**V A M PI R E D I A R I E S**_

The cemetery was only about three minutes away on bike, so I got there fairly quickly. I walked alongside the empty strip of road alongside the river that Elena's parents died in. It was disturbing to think that two people I've known and loved for most of my life died here; so much so that I felt a chill ripple along my spine. Just then, I was surrounded by a thick and eerie fog. A call from a crow caused me to jump. I looked around to see the crow from this morning perched on a tree branch about 10 feet away from me, its eyes glaring into mine.

_**V A M PI R E D I A R I E S**_

**Hope you guys liked it! RxR! :D**


	3. Author's Note! :D

Hey everybody! Just wanted to let you guys know that I am, in fact, working on the third chapter! I truly apologize for waiting so long, but I went through a couple of drafts that I absolutely hated, like, REALLY hated. But yes, it is in the process of being remade as you read this.

I've gotten a bunch of reviews lately, thank you by the way. I'll acknowledge everybody's reviews in the next chapter. I'm guessing all of the new reviews are in because of the last episode of Vampire Diaries, which was AWESOME and SAD! (Poor Rose. I was really hoping she would live...) But yes, I am working on all of it!

Hope you guys have had a great holiday season and whatnot, and I sincerely hope you all have a great day/evening!

-Ritchie


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